In conjunction with Iowa City's 2008 designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, an interdisciplinary team of University of Iowa faculty, graduate and undergraduate student researchers formed UCOL--the University of Iowa UNESCO City of Literature Mobile Application Development Team. The project brings together community partners, faculty, students…

This paper documents an evaluation of children's written responses to a story telling package used in an intervention project set up by the National Association for the Teaching of English as part of the larger "Inspire Rotherham" literacy campaign. The brief was to provide a group of primary teachers with innovative and inspirational approaches…

Teaching students to practice independently is an important part of a music teacher's work. Yet, many common techniques used to teach and enforce student practicing, such as practice charts and performance tests, can backfire, causing students to practice inefficiently or lose their love of music. In search of a method of teaching practicing that…

The dialogic nature of small group collaborative learning requires verbal contributions from students to progress individual and group learning. Speaking can become privileged over listening as a collaborative act, and an imbalance in these values can become embedded in the classroom culture to the degree that the core value of listening can be…

The objective of the study is to use social network analysis to examine the acceptability of a youth-led, hybrid face-to-face and online social networking HIV prevention program for homeless youth. Seven peer leaders (PLs) engaged face-to-face homeless youth (F2F) in the creation of digital media projects (e.g. You Tube videos). PL and F2F…

It's a drug prevention conversation--and program--that was largely missing as recently as a decade ago in most middle and high schools. In those days, the principal concern of health educators and disciplinarians alike was to keep students from misusing alcohol and illegal street drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine and even heroine. But driven by the…

This study assessed the predictive relationships between faculty engagement, learner satisfaction, and outcomes across multiple learning delivery modes (LDMs). Participants were enrolled in courses with the options of three learning delivery modes: face-to-face, satellite broadcasting, and live video-streaming. The predictive relationship between…

This study presents findings from analyses of naturally occurring literacy events, where children jointly focus on reading and writing letters of the alphabet, illustrating social constructions of learning created through language and embodied action. Video recorded data from two different families living in an urban low-income area in Tanzania is…

This article presents the case of one 16-year-old male who failed a career exploration class and then participated in a group intervention designed to increase his motivation to explore. Using a case study method, the authors triangulated video, questionnaire, observational, interview, and artefact data to identify the main themes that emerged for…

The study compared participant comprehension of foreign language video content using two advance organizer (AO) strategies while exploring the benefits of AOs as proficiency increases. Participants were 50 advanced-beginner Spanish college students in three sections. Collaborative reading condition participants read a target language narrative…

This paper reports on the first major survey of cyber-bullying undertaken in Ireland. While preliminary results have been published they were based on a smaller and incomplete sample of 12-16 year olds living in Ireland. The preliminary results addressed the incidence level of cyber-bullying and that of the different subcategories of…

In a randomized experiment using moment-to-moment audience analysis methods, we compared women's emotional responses with a narrative versus informational breast cancer video. Both videos communicated three key messages about breast cancer: (i) understand your breast cancer risk, (ii) talk openly about breast cancer and (iii) get regular…

Parenting is traditionally conceptualized as an exogenous environment that affects child development. However, children can also influence the quality of parenting that they receive. Using longitudinal data from 650 identical and fraternal twin pairs, we found that, controlling for cognitive ability at age 2 years, cognitive stimulation by parents…

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) have received considerable attention in news headlines describing gamers who have died while engaging in excessive play. However, more common physical and psychosocial effects attributed to online video gaming are social isolation, increased aggression, and negative academic and occupational consequences.…

This column presents an outline for the secondary general classroom. The project, called a "soundwalk," requires students to use music, sounds, and technology to create immersive, cinematic audio tours of their school and community. The author argues that the soundwalk is a perfect opportunity for students within secondary general music courses to…